Presslabs backup policy

Doing backups is a must these days. This is why here at Presslabs we have a multi-layered backup policy, trying to minimise data loss down to zero in case of any event.

We’re using z3 to manage the backups on our platform, a tool written in Python which we open-sourced.

Our backup policy is done on 3 different types of data:

1. Site code

By site code we mean all the files that stay in WordPress wp-content folder exceptuploads and upgrades folders. This means all the theme and plugin files, together will all the files that are stored in the root folder of your site, e.g. example.com/abc.html.

All these files are stored on our Git servers stack and they’re versioned after each time a file is modified, as Git commits. This makes it very easy to restore any change to any file using Git commands.

Currently the history of changes stored in the Git repo isn’t limited in time or number of commits.

2. Static files

WordPress keeps its static files in the folder /wp-content/uploads/. We’re using ZFS to store these files, on a pair of storage servers, having paired hard disks using RAID, configured for automatic failover in case any of them fails. ZFS is taking automatic snapshots with the following rules:

every 15 minutes for the last hour

every hour for the past day

every day for the past month

every week for the past 2 months

every month for the past 3 months

We also have a dedicated backup server for each cluster that syncs these snapshots on a daily basis. This server is physically located in a different Datacenter from the cluster it backs up, to be safe in case a Datacenter fail. On a nightly basis the backup server sends all the daily snapshots in an Amazon S3 bucket where they are stored for 21 days. We therefore have 4 levels of backups for this data:

A pair of RAID disks on each storage server - in case a disk fails, the other takes over until the first is replaced.

A pair of servers with automatic failover, synchronised every 5 seconds

Off-site dedicated backup server for each cluster

Amazon S3 bucket for disaster recovery purposes

3. Database

We’re using a MySQL stack to store the database used by WordPress with a primary server and 1 or 2 replica servers, with RAID-paired hard drives and automatic failover between the servers. The external backup server mentioned above on the static files section is also configured as a MySQL replica server, in sync with the entire stack of its dedicated cluster. This server also takes nightly snapshots of all the MySQL databases and keeps them for 30 days. In the same time it sends them over to an Amazon S3 where they’re kept for 21 days. The same 4 layers backup is present here as well.

FAQs

How can I have a backup of my site?

In case you want a backup of your site’s code (themes, plugins, etc.), you have to clone your site’s Git repository or access the Gitea web app.
In case you need a backup of your database, or your static files (WordPress uploads) — you can request one from the Presslabs dashboard, from the tab Sites -> Snapshots.

See Also

Presslabs Banned Plugins

Plugins solve a lot of wants, but also bring a lot of don'ts. We've compiled a list of banned [...]